Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard is internationally acclaimed as a visionary and authentic artist, renowned for his deep and original musicianship, innovative programming, an extensive catalogue of critically-acclaimed recordings, and for “cataclysmic…life-affirming…sublime” performances (The Times).
He studied piano and composition from an early age with a former student of Carl Nielsen, and later also cello, percussion and conducting.
He complemented this with playing jazz on the piano with his father and later joining a rock band on guitar. After completing his conducting studies with Prof. Arne Hammelboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music he went to Norman Del Mar’s conducting class at Royal College of Music, London. Following master classes with Franco Ferrara and Leonard Bernstein, he was appointed Assistant Conductor with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which launched his international career.
As a guest conductor Dausgaard has worked extensively with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Symphony and Bavarian Radio Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Houston Symphony and Bergen Philharmonic with whom he is recording Bruckner symphonies for BIS. He has also appeared with the New York, Los Angeles, Munich and St Petersburg Philharmonics, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, London Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and regularly at prestigious festivals worldwide, notably the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia and George Enescu Festivals, and Tanglewood. He has toured extensively in Europe and the US with “his” orchestras, as well as a week-long residency in Tokyo 2019, presenting the BBC Proms in Japan for the first time.
Dausgaard has recently been appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Chorus as well as Honorary Guest Conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic, following his successful tenure as Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2016-2022). He also holds honorary titles with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Chief Conductor 1997-2019) and with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Principal Guest Conductor 2001-2004, Chief Conductor 2004–2011). He was previously Principal Guest Conductor (2014-2019) and Music Director (2019-2022) of the Seattle Symphony. He has been awarded the Cross of Chivalry by the Queen of Denmark, elected to the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden, and Honorary Doctor at the Örebro University.
Recent highlights include successful return concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan an KBS symphonies, Brussels, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Dresden philharmonics, Bamberg, Lucerne and Valencia symphony orchestras, and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. He recently made his debut with Warsaw Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Malmö Symphony and Brucknerhaus Orchester Linz.
This season Dausgaard continues his Bruckner-bicentenary celebrations with performances of symphonies 8, 4 and 5; he will give the Spanish premiere of Langgaard Symphony No 1, the Italian premieres of Sibelius Symphony No 5 (original version – championed by Dausgaard and recently re-premiered by him and the Helsinki Philharmonic) and Langgaard Symphony No 4. In Copenhagen he will perform works by Danish female composers not performed since their premiere over a hundred years ago: Hilda Sehested and Nancy Dalberg. Like with Langgaard’s orchestral music, he has instigated new critical editions to be made, making these mostly handwritten scores widely available in print. He is also a firm believer in completions of works with significant sketches like Mahler 10 (Cooke III) and Bruckner 9 (SPCM), and he has made his own edition of Schumann’s “Zwickau Symphony” based on the manuscript and recorded for BIS.
Dausgaard’s innovative “Roots”-programmes – contextualising classical music with other genres – include Sibelius, Stravinsky, Brahms, Bartok, Nielsen with groups of folk musicians, Mahler with klezmer music, Debussy with gamelan ensemble, and Rachmaninoff with orthodox chant, of which several have been presented at the BBC Proms. His latest commission project is “Scottish Inspirations”; fascinated by the diversity and richness of Scottish history, arts and natural wonders Dausgaard has asked composers to make what inspires them about Scotland into a musical work – composers include Sally Beamish, Anna Clyne, Helen Grime and Bent Sørensen.
Since realising his vision of recording Beethoven’s Complete Orchestral Music – for the first time with one partnership (Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra) – , Dausgaard’s over 100 CD recordings have consistently been praised and Grammy nominated, including several complete symphonic cycles – Schumann, Schubert and Brahms (SCO), Langgaard (DNSO), as well as Sibelius Kullervo and Bartok Orchestral works (BBC SSO), Mahler 10, Nielsen symphonies and Strauss tone poems (Seattle SO), Bruckner symphonies (Bergen Phil), as well as CD’s with repertoire from Bach to Neuwirth, and including works he commissioned or is dedicated by Danish composers Nørgård, Abrahamsen, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and Sørensen. DVD’s include Langgaard’s opera “Antichrist” and symphonies by Brahms, Dvorak, Sibelius and Nielsen.
In collaboration with folk musicians Dausgaard has composed Preludes for his “Roots”-programmes. He has also orchestrated his own versions Brahms’ Hungarian Dances (recorded for BIS), songs by Grieg and Sibelius, and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an exhibition” (with chorus). This season he premieres his new orchestration of Langgaard’s 3rd String Quartet “Rabbia”, and performs several of his Hungarian Dances in a program around early Bartok, in a ping-pong with the Hungarian folk music band Budapest Bar.
Dausgaard’s exploratory approach to the music and to the world has taken him to remote parts of the globe, connecting with people of different cultures, from the Amazon to Borneo, from China to Pacific Islands.
His commitment to future generations of musicians have led to initiating collaborations with a youth orchestra in the favelas of Sao Paulo and giving conducting master classes from Spain to Beijing. He has also led youth orchestras like the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra (Japan), Australian Youth Orchestra, Royal Danish Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra – and later this year the Italian Youth Orchestra. During Covid lockdown Dausgaard launched a successful Youtube channel called “Thomas’ Music Room”, introducing “children and childlike souls” to music.
Most recently, he has been hosting war refugees in Denmark.